1. The Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to an improved tree ball wrapping device for enwrapping the root ball of a tree which has been removed from the ground manually or by automatic tree removal means as are found in commercial nurseries. The ball is wrapped in protective, bio-degradable cloth material such as burlap to protect and keep damp the roots during transport and replanting or when holding above ground.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art is best demonstrated by reference to tree removal devices such as that supplied by Veemeer Manufacturing Co., of Pella, IA 50219, Caretree Systems, Worthington, OH 43085, and others.
A tree is removed from the ground for transplanting by carrying with it its root system. If removed manually, the root system tends to encapsulate considerable earth when the tree is lifted. This is represented by a typically bulky spheroidal shaped network of roots and earth from which the trade term "ball" is derived.
Modern practice takes advantage of the fact that tree root systems grow downward centrally in more or less conical form, making the digging of a spheroidally shaped ball unnecessary and inefficient, requiring as it does considerably more weight of earth to remove and a considerably larger hole for transplanting. Since this is so, the tree is susceptible to being dug by straight-forward conical cuts forming an included angle of typically 60.degree. and lifted from the ground automatically. The device which accomplishes such a thing has a plurality of shovel-like diggers mounted to hydraulically driven rams which are propelled to meet each other below ground surface, to form a cone-shaped "ball" and thereby enabling rapid lifting and removal of a tree from the ground with its root system essentially intact in the conical mass. Wrapping the roots in, for example, burlap is left to the operator who must disgorge the tree from the ram driven shovels by retracting them over a burlap sheet set flat upon the gound. The tree thereafter becomes positionally unstable on account of the cone. The ball is then manually wrapped in the burlap which is tied to and around it and the tree trunk. Because of the instability, tying is a haphazard process at best and frequently proves to be destructive of the root system. This leads to the premature death of the tree and its ultimate replacement by the nursery.
Your inventor contends that there is no known systematic means currently available in the art comparable to the present invention in which a tree ball of the type described can be efficiently and rapidly enwrapped and tied without damage to the root system.